Saturday, October 6, 2012

Robert Vadra & The Innocence Of Journalists

When Arvind Kejriwal
announced a press meet on October 5 the media must have rushed to get some more
interesting sound-bites on his new political party. They didn’t expect him to
lay out alleged financial misdeeds of Robert
Vadra (RV), the national son-in-law. All hell broke loose. Later, one
anchor, who likes to see the larger picture, even asked if TeamArvind is going
to target a BJP member next. I’ve never seen so many heavy weights coming out
with guns blazing to defend one man. Some of them even claimed he’s a ‘private citizen’. Yes indeed, the
sudden growth of RV to a billionaire is indeed a very private affair. There
were Congresspersons of all voices and sizes. There was Rashid Alvi, Rajiv
Shukla, Manish Tiwari, Renuka Chaudhary. They even threw in ministers like
Salman Khurshid and also Jayanthi Natarajan, who made a sudden special
appearance after a long gap. Khurshid even angrily stated: “We will teach Kejriwal a lesson”. Someone
joked on Twitter if Khurshid is the Union Law Minister or the Union “In-Law”
minister.

All this is nothing new. The Robert Vadra story has been doing the
rounds for over a year now. It’s only the print media though, that was doing
all the talking. TV news channels stuck to their Sharia which prohibits them
from ‘blasphemy’ against the Sonia Gandhi clan. Private folks on Youtube showed
greater courage and narrated RV’s story. You can see and hear it on this Youtube site or this Youtube site. Oops.. Sorry! If you
opened those pages this is what you get:

Well, another Youtube
page does carry that picture story on RV with a toxic warning about how GOI
pulls any videos on Youtube that portrays the Gandhi family negatively. As
usual, the worst debates did happen on NDTV and CNN-IBN. While the big pieces
came out in force the small pawns didn’t fail in defending RV either. The worst
one was clearly Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN. In trying to “balance” his
stupidity Rajdeep never fails to ask why BJP didn’t bring up the RV case
earlier. This time he got a reply asking why the media didn’t debate it when
the RV reports have been out for more than a year. “Point taken” said Rajdeep.
The Axis of Evil of TV news kept asking everyone why they don’t go to the
courts if there are misdeeds by RV. This is where Rajdeep received another resounding
slap. This time it was from Dr. Subramanian Swamy. Prabhu Chawla, once again
did some homework (Why now? Why not earlier?) and suggested many politicians
have got flats or property from DLF at throwaway prices.

First, a bit about Robert Vadra’s billions. Economic Times (Robert Vadra ties up with DLF) was among the
first to do a full story in March 2011. Then Outlook magazine did an analysis of the ET article with
reactions from Opposition parties including the BJP. Here’s what Outlook said
on March 18, 2011 (Tweets are
highlighted in red):

The story was summed up by Mr
Swapan Dasgupta, a journalist known to be close to the BJP, on Twitter as: “ET's Vadra story drives home reality of crony capitalism. DLF pays
Vadra 2 buy its own properties at sharp discount & get secure equity” Monday, March 14, 2011 10:47:38 AM via web

On March 16, the TOI reported: BJP, Left to corner Cong on Vadra's
rise:

On Tuesday, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said,
"The matter is a serious one and the party is gathering documents to aise
it with the prominence it deserves." She said the party had "entrusted" leader of opposition in
Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley to collect facts on Vadra's rise. CPM leader Sitaram
Yechury was on the same track. "It looks like a serious matter and our
party is ascertaining facts and will come up with a structured reaction on
this," he said. But the story began to change, as Mr Dasgupta tweeted on
March 16: Resistance in BJP on raising Vadra issue is from some a of its
ex-Presidents. Wednesday, March 16, 2011 2:57:47 PM via Mobile Web

…Leader of Opposition in the Lok Saba Sushma Swaraj felt it would not
be good form to target family members of political rivals. Since then, of
course, the focus has shifted to the cash for vote wikileaks expose… Notice how
many of those who helped the UPA win the confidence vote & also helped
Vadra's business secured Padma awards? Not incl. media…. The controversy over
Sant Singh Chatwal was public enough but perhaps Mr Dasgupta was alluding to Dr. Kushal Pal Singh, the chairman and CEO
of DLF, getting a Padma Bhushan for 2009 and the prominent name in this list
in his last tweet?

Hmm… yes, some of the Padma awards under the Cong-UPA govt are indeed
surprising, including those delivered to media folks. In case you forgot,
Robert Vadra was also voted “Style Icon” of 2011. He does have style, doesn’t he? Anyway, let’s read what RV said when the DLF tie-up was
sealed: “The Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Saket is a small business hotel. I have
interest in hospitality and am happy to be part of the hotel.” Vadra also added, ”I have known the DLF
people for a long time and they are friends of mine. I had wanted to invest in
real estate and one thing led to another. Right now, I can only be part of a
small hotel. If I were taking favours from people I would be doing far bigger
things. But I am doing this on my own. I can’t expand immediately but I hope to
expand a few years down the line”. Oh, these are just “small” things and RV
hopes to “expand” in a few years. So you and I will have to wait for that “expansion”.
Wonder what that is going to be like! Buying up real estate on the moon or
mars?

On August 25, 2011 FashionScandal reported thus: “DLF, which is going through a financial crunch
is also looking to divest its stake in the Hilton Group. Some feel that these
divestments are aimed at distancing DLF from Robert Vadra owned Sky Light
Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. DLF Hotel Holdings entered into partnership with Sky
Light Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. but after that the group has been facing political
heat from the Opposition parties”. So now that we have some background story we
can get back to Rajdeep Sardesai. On pushing Dr.Swamy over why they aren’t going
to courts, Swamy replied he had announced long back RV was third on his list
after 2G and P.Chidambaram. This is correct. But it’s clearly shameful of
Rajdeep to ask these stupid questions when TV channels even failed to discuss
the RV reports in print/websites. Naturally, Dr.Swamy delivered a stinging slap
to Rajdeep and others like Prabhu Chawla and Vinod Mehta when he pointed out
the “innocence of journalists” in real estate scams. Ouch! That’s gonna hurt.
What Swamy was clearly hinting at was that top media celebs and media houses
were no exceptions when it came to real estate scams. Is it then a surprise
that all the ‘media pawns’ were fighting so vigorously for Robert Vadra?

Here’s a tweet from Swamy from June 2011. He clearly states Shekhar Gupta, of Indian Express, has
acquired 20 times the property to his known sources of income and therefore has
to “behave” for Sonia Gandhi. Gupta, who sued his critics for 500 crores over
the silly “Army coup” story has not uttered a single word over this allegation
by Swamy. Not just Swamy, even Kuldip Nayar has stated that Gupta had become “abnormally
affluent”. Did the media ask any questions? None! Hammam, you see!

Interestingly, when asked by Shekhar Gupta “Can you run a property business without bribing?” the DLF
chairman replied: ‘In my terminology, what I call bribing, is in two parts:
One, where you give money to somebody to facilitate quicker disposal. Second,
you give money, if somebody asks you, to do a wrong job. Now in my terminology,
bribing is to do a wrong job, which I have never done in my life”. Haha..“facilitate
quicker disposal”. Yeah, that answer surely deserves a Padma Bhushan.

If RV is dabbling in real estate crores and is a private citizen, what
exactly was he doing in UP in February 2012? He was running around on bikes
campaigning for Congress. He even suggested Priyanka Vadra would do well in
politics. “Point taken” is not an answer Rajdeep. Regardless of what political
parties do or don’t do, it does not explain why the media is permanently silent
on alleged misdeeds of the Gandhi family or its own media clan. Lately, N. Ram of The Hindu is accused in a land-grab case. A FIR has been filed
against N.Ram and even a DMK member
and Ram has sought anticipatory bail according to news reports. Why is the TV
media and even major print media houses not debating or even reporting that?
Sonia Gandhi has been named as the 4th richest politician in the world with
assets over $2 billion. Do they want to wait for another Kejriwal moment to
debate the story? Why does it take Narendra Modi to talk about SoniaG’s foreign
travels for media to debate or report? The BJP had even constituted a special
task force on black money and submitted a report. Did the media even discuss
the report or its contents?

The answers are not very difficult to find. Rajdeep Sardesai and his
clan of media pawns move only when moved by other forces. I had earlier written
a post: “Why Is Indian Media Scared Of Sonia Gandhi? in June 2011. That deals with how Rahul Kanwal cut off a person asking
questions of SoniaG’s assets. There was another debate when Rajdeep Sardesai
quickly cut off former IT officer Vishwabandhu Gupta when he raised questions
on SoniaG’s wealth. Rajdeep then chided V.Gupta “Don’t make wild allegations”. The allegations against Robert Vadra aren’t
wild. In fact Prabhu Chawla’s analysis of the documents makes worse reading.
Chawla states that the 65crores being referred as loan is actually an “advance”
paid by DLF to RV for properties to be sold by RV. Hmmm!

Here’s the thing: Since it is recorded as “advance” in RV’s books it
becomes a “liability” rather than his income. Secondly, being shown as “advance”
it also avoids being treated as income and avoids capital gains tax, if any,
that is applicable. Another journo, Vineet Narain, told Prashant Bhushan on
NDTV that all property deals everywhere are “under-valued”. He may have “innocently”
forgotten that he implies that both Robert Vadra and DLF may be dealing heavily
in black money. Maybe it's time to make another movie: "Innocence of journalists" and that won't lead to any violent riots..

71 comments:

Clearly all TV anchors and union ministers were doing bidding for Vadra. It takes courage to directly take on the Family. Only two people earlier have shown that : Modi & Swamy. One should salute Kjriwak-Bhushan duo. On CNN-IBN when Swamy blasted "innocent journos", one could see Rajdeep, Chawla & Vinod Mehta squirming in their seats. To their fortune Swamy didn't name journos having farmhouses in and around Delhi. Politicians-Corporates-Media is a big incestuous family. Now that their Fountainhead is under attack,it's interesting to see how it unfolds. I will stick my neck out and predict that a short bloody revolution is in the offing. Amen!

Yet another superb one, Ravi. Media's role is thoroughly exposed - After this botched cover-up assignment by Media Rajdeep can now change it to simply "Hum sab nange hain ;)"

Lesson from DLF Chairman, it is not criminal on my part to do something to facilitate Speedy Disposal. Nice terminology.

Besides the media role, what these motley Wannabe Future Che Guevaras (but more dangerous types) bandied about are documents that can be obtained fromo Office of the RoC for a fee. Is it a scoop? Or CONgis "pretending to be hurt" to promote this pliable group into occupying "Non-CONgi" space in Indian Politics.

BTW! Is this Omerta Code practiced first in Italian underworld a coincidence? LoL!

Believe me this media discussions have made me sick (real sick). During such programs my BP rises causing breathlessness and later depression. It hurts knowing what is going on and what is being showed, debated and buried.Stupidity, partiality and cronyism annoys and kills, those who know. Ignorance is really a bliss.

Ravi, every time I stop reading/watching video of those b@stered on IBN and NDTV, your twit force me to do that, in even I saw any of those cronies (congi+media+vinod), I feel like agenda is set, stage is set, characters are set, it is all about to execution including blasting BJP and bringing NAMO in between. done. Rajdeep and Pranay got a little TRP, people normally dont care whats going on around, poor come out and vote congress...and we the fking patriot shed blood out in US thinking about better man of those poor.. that implies I am the fcking MORON b@stard...litterally tears in eyes on Friday night..

even after PMO said government didn't pay sonia gandhis's medical bills,media masters tried to keep it low profile and only showed small headlines and avoided wider debate because they know that PMO is lying and when debated elaborately many hidden facts would pop up.

Amazing that you can come out with such high quality posts on a daily basis. When the suspicious real estate deals were public knowledge for quite some time, media playing up the issue now is intriguing. Unfortunately reluctance of some of BJP leadership to take on the mighty dynasty is disappointing. It takes a Modi & a Swami to rattle the mysterious fake Queen and her family.

We are in an interesting time where Old Dynastic Chalta Hai politicans like Lalu,Mulayam, Karuna, Sonia Maino is getting replaced by relatively young hard working Modi, Chouhan,parrikar & hopefully Kejriwal. The fast movement of true Information is literally killing these Old corrupt Babu politicians along with their fake Main stream Media chamchas in suits.This latest Robert expose only points towards this revolution.

Older set of mindset which still had not cut umbilical chord with british raj systems and royal systems. This system is where bribes, parentage(dynasties historically always attached to power), caste(Tiwaris,Dvivedis, Chaturvedis of the world) , and British mannerism and education is the ticket to high society and benefits.

Agree with you. Interesting is, new set of people are all from humble backgrounds and worked their way up with principles and had work. I would include Ramdev as well.All of these people do not have missionary english education, all from lower castes, middle class.

I see the time in Indian society where we see confidence in historically unprivileged class which is ready to challenger the hold on power of certain types of families only.Definitely good omen for India and the world.

Older set of mindset which still had not cut umbilical chord with british raj systems and royal systems. This system is where bribes, parentage(dynasties historically always attached to power), caste(Tiwaris,Dvivedis, Chaturvedis of the world) , and British mannerism and education is the ticket to high society and benefits.

Agree with you. Interesting is, new set of people are all from humble backgrounds and worked their way up with principles and had work. I would include Ramdev as well.All of these people do not have missionary english education, all from lower castes, middle class.

I see the time in Indian society where we see confidence in historically unprivileged class which is ready to challenger the hold on power of certain types of families only.Definitely good omen for India and the world.

Its not that the leaders from unprivileged class have never participated in Power structure ( Lalu, Mulayam, Karuna etc are all from OBC group) but what's different now is the leaders which I mentioned earlier such as Modi, Chouhan, Parrikar & Kejriwal are not just Tech savvy & educated but have a growth vision. Moreever they have a real shot of becoming PM on their merit without support from any Dynasty or caste which earlier leaders from unpriviledged sections never had.

How much effort does it take for our "media" to investigate the value of the properties - at the point it was "charitably" given to Vadra and to the general public at the same time in the same complex?

Our "media" that is so found of "Breaking News" is now afraid of breaking the news.

The defense of the Congress is laughable in that it tries to portray poor 500 cr Vadra as a private citizen, lack of motives and hitting below the belt.

Questions must also be asked of the opposition - why have they closed their traps shut for months? Why the kid glove treatment for Vadra? Do Sushma Swaraj and company also have skeletons to hide in DLF?

Outstanding article and vision portrayed. An eye opener. When watching TV i always felt something is missing somewhere, somethings being hidden under a veil of professionalism or moderation; it is wow to see you putting it together. THANKS.

Great article. The SoB and DoB looting our country must be exposed. Do these animals have any feelings for poor, hungry or dying? A revolution is needed in India, earlier the better to get rid of these animals.

I remember just few days back when Ramdev was fasting in Ramlila Ground, idiot Khursheed made a big joke that it was a Ramlila. Now the whole world is seeing Sonia Lila. Millions of dollars paid by GoI or someone for her travels, Clown Prince alleged involvement in rape case. RV making deals with the help of Congi Governments. Good to see active participation of all Chamcha in Sonia Lila. Waiting for Poodle to enter the stage now.

I can understand the reluctance of the holier than thou journalists to discuss land scams, buying of property for lower than market rates and other sorts of largesse.

After all, many journalists are prime beneficiaries of such backdoor deals. And so there are 'Patrakar Colonies' on prime residential real estate all over the country, built by governments to officially bribe and shut journalists up, or flat allocations in townships built by Housing Development Authorities in the 'journalist quota' for the same purpose.

The fact that many journalists later sell these flats and make massive profits is quietly overlooked.

You see, Journalists are yet another minority community. They have plenty of power. Naturally, they need to be made to feel they are special, and pampered like any other minority community. Nevermind the fact journalists make good salaries these days and earn even more under the table. And that is how on a few coveted beats, you will find the journalist suddenly move to a good house, a nice shiny car, and other bells and whistles that don't correspond with the fellow's sources of legal income from the noble profession.

The government also holds the key to other land allocations, which media owners might need for various purposes. Reporting on son-in-laws might end up being counterproductive to the media owner's chance of becoming a Holiday Inn owner himself someday.

You make Peepli Live sound like a professional and ethical channel compared to these real life media crooks. Keep up the good work. To be sure, it takes a lot of your time and energy, but it is very much needed in our second freedom movement. More power to you.

the cannon fodder paraded in news channels to manifest their servitude in full view of the public. Pathetic attempt.

Now, the next platoon will arrive headed by Kapil Sibal invoking his zero loss theory to rubbish kejriwal claims followed by Chidambaram reassuring us all that the land is still retained by Mother Earth - So where is the loss?

This is an outstanding article. Robert Vadra has become a daylight robber. The most repeated idiom on tV yesterday by the defend-vadra brigade was shoot and scoot. As if Arvind Kejriwal and co merely make allegations and then go to some other matter. Instead of doing a little deeper study of the allegations against the robber, the media lent a big helping hand to the congress's big guns, Jayanti, Salman, the In-Law minister etc in accusing Nitin Gadkari of helping a contractor!

I wish and hope mediacrooks keeps asking inconvenient questions of media's big guns and keep exposing their nexus with the corrupt Delhi durbar.

Why RV is exempted of security checks in all Indian Airports?Is he taking Antiques stolen from different parts of the country?Is he taking ton loads off cash or cash receipts of hawala transactions to be deposited or shown in tax haven banks?Is he doing all this without the knowledge of MainoG,RaulG and BiancaG,if not then all the family is involved in the business.

Sagarika is out to defend Vadra on twitter. Busy tweeting veiled threats against the BJP already. Looks like she found a BJP name or two in DLF flats. But the great part is, her tweets remind us again about who is the master she barks for.

This is blasphemous writing at its best! Already we saw the MSM anchor, who loves Old Monk, issuing a fatwa calling Mediacrooks as paid media in a private message to an individual who shared this post. Was he thinking private messages of such scandalous nature will not be shared by them? Did he think those who share these posts are his fan boys? LoL! So much for his IQ, for his SM quotient!

What prevented him from openly stating his views, or one-to-one to MC? MSM, your bluff is being exposed day in, day out. What Arvind Kejriwal, Bhushan said is NOT new. He probably joins your persona-non-grata list just as Dr.Swamy or others. You were saving this private citizen and this family from bad news! We know you love to be HMV. For the reasons narrated in the post above.

If you think people do not have any other source for information, and analysis, you are mistaken. We watch news channels to see your biased narrative to expose it. Nothing more. So, a good chunk of TRP comes from critics. Save your credibility before this Social Media revolution guillotines your entities out of business!

In the light of Kejriwal's bold accusations against Vadra backed up by evidence, what do you have to say for yourself. You went on a rant against him on twitter on August 3-4 calling him a Congress agent etc. because he criticized Modi. The rant continued in your post titled "Team Anna - The Genie's Back In The Bottle" on August 3 that was full on assumptions that Team Anna disintegerated because they were trying to be secular. The fact is wherever the BJP is in power, its leaders and their family members also milk the discretionary powers of the state to fill their own coffers. I have seen this with my own eyes in UP in the 1990s. I dont know what Modi is doing but I would be very surprised if along with development he is not doing what all politicians in India have to do. Why would a Congress agent try to expose Vadra? Makes no sense. In future, I would hope that you dont allow your partisan loyalties to trigger an emotional reactions.

This post does not alter my stance on Kejriwal in anyway. First of all it doesnt discuss Kejriwal as much as it does the media response to the Vadra issue and the media's overall approach to the Gandhi family. Next, after talking nonsense about Modi.. Kejriwal is on record stating he doesnt have any evidence. Lastly, only a very "emotional" person would credit Kejriwal with exposing Vadra. That is wishful thinking. As the post indicates there has been a lot of stuff of Vadra which has only been repeated by AK. The only thing is not everyone is on a "drama" mode like AK. Finally, it doesnt matter who says it because the issue was alive and valid. I hope you can see the difference.

And yes, if AK or any of TeamKejriwal make frivolous, unsubstantiated allegations they are sure to be ridiculed as much as I ridicule the media. FYI you may not have read a lot here, but I have also defended Rahul Gandhi. That doesnt make me fan.

I am not asking you to give Kejriwal any credit but can you explain why a Congress agent (i.e. Kejriwal) will repeat allegations against Vadra? What can the Congress party gain by highlighting the shady business deals of Vadra? From your reply it seems your basic problem with Kejriwal is that he is in "drama" mode. I do not know what that means. Perhaps I am stupid.

Kejriwal is desperate to gain credibility in view of Anna leaving him alone in politics. He has not found any thing new on Vadra. This information is all out there but will not be dared to be investigated by CBI or Courts or journalists. There are a lot of allegations against Sonia too. I will believe Kejriwal when he directly attacks Sonia and pushes the envelope. AK may be real and wants to change the narrative but his previous associations with all those anti-national, Stalinist type NAC members leave an element of doubt that he is a Manchrian candidate put up by Congress party to steal middle class votes in urban areas to damage BJP.

None of his ideas really are worthy enough to change our democratic institutions. There is only one and one thing that will change Indian politics i.e. Destruction of NOMINATION system every where: MLA tickets, MP tickets, Zilla tickets, CMs, heads of institutions such as CEC, judges, public prosecutors. We need to change that system. We need PRIMARY form of democracy where people will select who will represent their party for MLA elections. Imagine that! BJP members will elect BJP candidate and Congres members will elect Congress candidate and then real election will take place. Imagine when the power of dynasties id removed! Why doesn't AK think of some thing like this if he really want to change the democracy. Work with people to push these ideas! Every one know he can't WIN. No matter what he does he won't get more than 2% vote.

Ravinar: "if AK or any of TeamKejriwal make frivolous, unsubstantiated allegations they are sure to be ridiculed as much as I ridicule the media."

Viveck2020 :"AK may be real and wants to change the narrative but his previous associations with all those anti-national, Stalinist type NAC members leave an element of doubt that he is a Manchrian candidate put up by Congress party to steal middle class votes in urban areas to damage BJP"

Viveck, how about backing your assessment of AK and your wild conspiracy theory about him being a Manchurian candidate with some evidence? At least, Kejriwal and his team have Sancheti's fraud irrigation contracts which conclusively point a needle of suspicious towards Gadkari. What do you have to substantiate your silly claim? If AK deserves ridicule, so do you..

And btw, the hero of right-wingers, Subramanian Swamy admitted on 'Aap ki Adalat' that he was once close to the Gandhi family and that in the past he had called RSS a terrorist organisation. Is he a Manchurian candidate too? To paraphrase Swamy, only 'dhrust' people with dark motives use past associations of people to smear them. ;)

"As the post indicates there has been a lot of stuff of Vadra which has only been repeated by AK. The only thing is not everyone is on a "drama" mode like AK"

And yet, not a single politician from BJP had the guts to publicly say it. All the 'loh purush' of BJP has done so far is to shamelessly backtrack and apologize to Sonia whenever he has made any serious allegation against her.

And why grudge AK his well-enacted drama? At least, he made the mainstream media break its code of silence regarding the gandhi family..something that even Swami has failed to do, despite his daughter being well-entrenched in MSM.

AK is much more sharper and perceptive than people credit him for..and a quick learner too. He saw how the media completely ignored the charges leveled against 15 ministers by the IAC and so launched into 'drama' mode leaving the media no room for escape. And you have to admire him for how he has tackled the Anna Hazare problem. Just two weeks ago, the media was playing up his alleged split with Hazare and claiming that he wouldn't be able to attract any attention without Anna backing him. But the way, AK is playing the game, people will soon forget Anna and dump him considering him a relic of the past.

"viveck, how about backing your assessment of AK and your wild conspiracy theory about him being a Manchurian candidate with some evidence? At least, Kejriwal and his team have Sancheti's fraud irrigation contracts which conclusively point a needle of suspicious towards Gadkari. What do you have to substantiate your silly claim? If AK deserves ridicule, so do you.. "

You seem to be a blind follower of AK and hater of any one who cautions against him.

Read what I said ... I said element of doubt. You seem to be blind and naive enough to trust everything you see. In AP, we all fell for Chirajeevi and Loksatta of JP. Chiranjeevi as proved was nothing but a Manchurian candidate who joined the looters as soon as he got a chance. Loksatta who the middle class dreamed would be an alternative to all the political system became irrelevant. But he served a purpose by getting 1000 to 5000 votes in many urban areas. If we trust every thing we see, there will be an egg on our faces.

As AK himself said in the interviews in the last 2 days, this Govt. is bent on using CBI, corrupted judges, ED and every institution to go after the opponents including AK and PB. The heinous dogs of Sonia such as Sardeep Desai, Digvijay Singh, Manish Tiwari go after every one including Anna using even institution that is available. Even during emergency, this did not happen. This Govt. is so dangerous. If AK is not a Manchurian candidate, he has to work with all patriotic forces to get rid of the dynasty and let the primacy of these independent institutions stand.

I really don't care about BJP. But NDA did not destroy institutions the way UPA/Dienasty did. Even then, it shows the vulnerability of our system where the executive can blackmail, bribe and corrupt every institution including the MEDIA.

I have been sending several mails to IAC and Kejriwal on the reforms we need to our system. Most of his solutions are ridiculous and irrelevant in modern day. Direct Democracy? what nonsense is that? Is it practical in a country of 1.2 Billion?

My prescription:

1. Remove NOMINATION SYSTEM in elections. No party gives tickets. The Party Members from Public will choose their candidate. Let every interested candidate from each party fight to get elected by their Party members and that person will represent the Party in the General election. This will destroy power bases of dynasties, families: Gandhis, Mulyams, Mayas, Pawars, Thackreys, Karunanidhis etc will slowly lose power. As time progresses, accountable candidates will fight for Party ticket and they will work for the people they elected instead of their masters in Delhi or Chennai or Hyderabad.2. Elect Public Prosecutors, heads of Police, Election commission etc so that these institutions become independent instead of Nominations by politicians.

All I have seen with AK is lets have a million people Lokayukta who will take care of corruption. What did we do when SOnia appointed Naveen Chawla of tainted fame as CEC? From TN Sehshan to Naveen Chawla... If AK is real, let him consider people's opinion otherwise he is just a Manchurian candidate or another Politicians? He can't become an MP and change this system.

Bobby, u seem blinded by AAP and kejru in particular.1.If his allegations abt vadra were true then y did he give a ticket to the candiate who gave a clean chit to vadra.2.If not drama den what is it, he says shelia dixit was a part of a CWG scam, and wen he became the CM he asked for proof from everybody around him when he himself said he had a 360 page doc abt it.3.You bash a person is corrupt when you yourself joins hands with dem, directly or indirectly.I hope you understand what "drama mode" is now. Do you think khemka is stupid not to join AAP n destroy vadra but by not doing so there is something fishy abt AAP that you didnt notice and khemka did.

One of the most astonishing aspects of Salman Khurshid's defence on Times Now was the candour with which he spoke of the "friendship" between DLF and Vadra, which resulted in the sanction of unsecured loans and sale of property at throwaway prices! Probably it was a slip of tongue - unfortunately neither Arnab nor Prashant Bhushan took the opportunity to pin him down on this point, though Prashant Bhushan did give him a rejoinder.

After that, Salman Khurshid appeared on several other channels but by this time, probably someone had warned him and he never repeated this "Friendship" line again.

Meanwhile, another glaring faux pas that he made was talking about the "protective armour around our leader". No wonder the battalion of Congress spokespersons and ministers were unleashed in TV Studios!

The lowered ratings of Fitch, Moody’s and S&P was a charade so that the politicians having thousands of crores of black money stashed abroad can LAUNDER it back home .

Otherwise it is stuck for ever abroad as Congress can forget about winning anymore elections in India .

FDI from abroad has now made it possible for this enormous black money to be looped back into India officially using BENAMI foreign names –like how the IPL owners are mostly benami.

These corrupt politicians will now OWN India’s infrastructure in assets the way Rothschild ( ex-owners of British East India Company ) has done it in Europe and USA.

Common educated Indians and India’s patriotic watchdog security agencies have NOT fallen for the GDP versus growth chicanery, which forced ( sic ) Manmohan to introduce FI in multi-brand retail and insurance as an IMMINENT fire-fighting measure.

After 2104 elections, these inflowed benami funds from foreign banks will be seized.

Come on you corrupt folks bring it all back before 2014.. Like for YSR/ Jagan Mohan Reddy—we will put your children and grandchildren in a hot scratchy jail.

Rubbish allegation on vadra i wud say.how dare this arvind kejriwal question the wealth of 1st son in law of this country?? who is kejriwal anyways?? just an IITian and civil srvant(ex and current). and does he know vadra and his status in india? he is the 1st son in law of our nation and he has right to amass money of this nation for his personal use. and 500 crores is obviously nothing for us indians. we can surely work hard again daily and fill the govt coffers once again so that our beloved 1st family members can use it for their personal use. dont u all agree? i mean add this meagre amout to 10 lc crore lost money in coal scam plus 2 lc crores for CWG. and much more. dont debate my fellow countrymen.work hard coz the cauffer is getting empty again.

Another moment during the interview, where you could literally feel Rajdeep shitting in his pants, acting like a cat on a hot tin roof was when Prabhu chawla kept on repeating (deviating from the topic) about how he has details of other politicos from BJP,JD etc having flats in DLF, maverick Dr Swamy, upon his turn, told that even he has details of who all journos have got farm houses and other govt benefits, Rajdeep started yelling "lets stick to vadra, lets stick to vadra, lets stick to vadra "...hahahaha..

“Point Taken” is probably the self-admitted lowest point of Rajdeep Sardesai’s journalistic career, that is if someone makes the grave mistake of alluding to these TV news anchors as ‘journalists’ because journalism doesn’t involve just questioning, rather it requires certain prerequisites - sufficient background knowledge of the matter being discussed, being up to date about facts, basic understanding if not scholarship of jurisprudence, economics, and history. I don’t want to be bulldozed by this bandwagon of calling every one of these TV news anchors and their panelists as financially corrupt or incorrigible crooks, but sometimes, they appear plain stupid and totally unworthy of being in the news business. At other times, they appear as fixers because of the nature of the beast that is news media. Every one is at liberty to have a political slant, but when the slant itself makes you look obdurate, blatantly stupid and devoid of common sense when discussing important issues of the day, especially as a news anchor, it is time to make course correction, which is not happening.In an effort to appear balanced, these news anchors always end up broadening the scope of the debate, thereby muddling the issues and leaving the audience in a much more confused state than they already were at the beginning of the show. This has been a familiar strategy on all news channels.“Let’s look at the bigger picture”, “Let’s raise a larger question”, “Let us be honest….”, “Common, we all know….” – These easily detectable banalities should immediately raise the audience’s consciousness on the futility of the questions or discussions to follow because the questioner has given up on logic, factual information, and his/her own ability to elicit a proper response, and instead appealing to argumentum ad misericordiam, argumentum ad misericordia, or argumentum ad populum logical fallacies, something that they would have learned not to do in their Journalism 101 class.

EPIC !! EPIC !! EPIC !! The reply which Prabhu Chawla gave (that advance stuff)...the same thing was ditto repeated by DLF rebutting charges by Kejriwal....it seems that replies are made by these ppl on consultation with these journos !!

What I found in debates is most of the BJP members who come on these debates are not agressive enough to confront these cheap reporters(I don't call them Journalists) and embarrass them on their own channels. When RS said 'Point taken', BJP spokes person should not have let it go after this comment but should have asked RS, PC and VM, what made them to skip that story, a bribe from ruling party or they are incompetent bastards?They should also ask RS, SG,Nidhi,Barka and other MSM morons why they cover Gandhi family when they never give them interviews? Why not our media boycot congress party if their leadership is unwilling to come to debates and instead wag tails in front of Gandhis.

If you observe, whenever there is an accusation on Congress party people, the Congress spokespersons as well as MSM media guys either try to question the accuser's credentials or his motives, rather than go into the merits of the case!

A clear example of trying to discredit the accuser so as to obfuscate the case.

A sharp contrast was when the lady from IAC was accusing the BJP President, Arnab Goswami did not allow anyone to question her motives....

It does not require great intelligence to know that Arnab is a paid lackey of Congress and Congress people are just poodles of "Sonia Gandhi" Family which is quite distinct from Nehru/Gandhi family. They just want to rule india where as Sonia Gandhi family wants to LOOT India.

So the secret Grand Mason / Masoness are on prey, their Grand Lodges overflowing with ideas to loot and lie, they preach tom-foolery very seriously to the gullible english speaking as well as native literate population as socio-economic resounding new age void of morality or administered prosperity of brotherhood---- you may ask what has this to do with this good article --- it is just the foundation to whatever wrong that is going on in India and crony connectivity it lends to those expose day by day, year on year. EU was stung now the poison is spreading here. Why did EU get nobel prize and left UK alone --- but look at it otherwise. Political demography is no different --- nations collect taxes and bind their citizens from freedom. UID is one such excercise - see it hijacked, for that is not our machination - but a global new age experiment to which our Congress party has fallen for it. All analysis will reveal the Grand Plan and f*g headache it will give to those understanding it minutely -- mango people even if it has an alternative to Congress(2014) will not be able to stop the poison.

ravinar beautifully written,and discovered lot good link and information i fully enjoyed and appreciate writer indepth knowledge of journalism and chosing wording thanks,,mainstream media is sold and playing diversionary tactics to befool public

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